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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25129063">Gathering Intel</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/xiucreampuff/pseuds/xiucreampuff'>xiucreampuff</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Eyeshield 21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Slow Romance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 03:47:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,312</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25129063</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/xiucreampuff/pseuds/xiucreampuff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>As much as Hiruma claims he is collecting more material for the threat book, the truth is he's just collecting pictures of Mamori.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anezaki Mamori/Hiruma Youichi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>38</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Gathering Intel</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Disclaimer: Eyeshield 21 is very much not mine. Thanks very much to writer Riichiro Inagaki and illustrator Yusuke Murata for creating such wonderful work.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It wasn't the first time Hiruma had set his threat book aside. It wouldn't be the last either.</p><p>One of his skills was reading people quickly, based on careful observation even through the smallest of interactions. And he'd interacted enough with enough people to know they were mostly self-centered and easy to manipulate. Despite his brash exterior, he chose his words carefully, laying small traps in conversation to get at the upperhand. </p><p>But Anezaki Mamori never fell for a single one of them. Even when he spoonfed her the best possible way to take him down, she didn't take the bait.</p><p>Of course this wasn't his first encounter with her. They were in the same batch of students who had applied to Deimon, after all. And she had stepped into his line of sight long before Kobayakawa Sena arrived on campus.</p><p>"Hiruma! You can't tear down other club posters just to advertise your own!"</p><p>"Piercings are against the dress code."</p><p>"Don't shoot that gun in here, this is a library!"</p><p>By the end of the first month, Hiruma already had nearly everyone at school under his control. She was the only one on the disciplinary committee who still bothered to submit reports on his behavior.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <i>Rigid, hardworking type. Annoying.</i>
  </p>
</div>He wrote this under her name in the threat notebook.<p>When the fucking old man tried to get himself expelled by smoking on campus, of course it was Anezaki who passed by. No, Musashi wasn't an idiot - he'd placed himself in her path on purpose. He had read her pretty much the same way Hiruma had.</p><p>No matter. Hiruma would definitely find a way to keep him enrolled no matter what. But it was a nuisance nonetheless.</p><p>He watched her walk away after he and Kurita arrived, wondering just what that look in her eyes was. She wouldn't back down just because he was there, though. He knew that much.</p><p>But no report of Musashi's smoking ever made it to any teacher. Anezaki was not so strict and upright as he had expected.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <i><s>Rigid,</s> hardworking type.<br/>
Sympathetic? Interesting.</i>
  </p>
</div>But not a priority.<p>After Musashi left school - though on his file it simply read "on extended leave of absence" - Hiruma channeled all his frustration into recruitment, trying to work out their road to the Christmas Bowl all on his own. </p><p>Now that they had their man with the lightspeed legs, there was a real shot at making it. After all, a lineman and a quarterback couldn't make it very far without anyone to hand the ball off to. He was ready to neutralize her if it came down to it.</p><p>"No, I won't do that. That would disqualify you from the tournament."</p><p>With that, he saw another route. Maybe there was a way to kill two birds with one stone.</p><p>Recruiting her onto the team wasn't just to prevent her from shutting down the club for the fucking chibi's sake. She was one of the smartest students in all of Deimon and they needed a manager. There was the chance of her getting in his way, so keeping Eyeshield's identity a secret was going to be a challenge, but it was possible. He decided to take the gamble.</p><p>Their first day as a club with four members, he knew she would have learned all the rules of the sport. His first wager wasn't made up on the spot. He purposefully challenged her and asked tedious questions to set up a trump card that would be unbeatable in the future.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <i>Easy to rile up.<br/>
Bench press: 20kg<br/>
Weakness: cream puffs?</i>
  </p>
</div>She ended up being more reliable than he expected. Her analytical mind, while not as sharp and trained for combat as his, became useful in organizing data on their opponents and coming up with strategies. Not to mention she was the only one he could count on to understand his extended game plans.<p>Still, he never knew when Eyeshield would be found out, so he kept collecting material for the threat notebook. Pictures of her sneaking cream puffs, pictures of her sleeping with her mouth wide open on the plane, pictures of her playing beach football in a swim suit in America.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <i>Cup size: B?</i>
  </p>
</div>He let her stay on for the Death March. As much as he was their leader, Hiruma wasn't the caring type. And Doburoku couldn't be counted on to look after the whole team's injuries. Considering the harsh training and his generally risky style of play, they needed a medic and she was the closest thing they had to one. He didn't expect her to look after his injuries, too, though. Or even notice them. It was unnerving when she showed up behind the Devil Bat Big Rig to apply an ice pack to his swollen knee.<p>For the rest of the trip, he tried to ignore her eyes on him. He didn't like having the tables turned like this. He would have to keep gathering intel.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <i><s>Observant</s> Nosey. Troublesome.</i>
  </p>
</div>Gradually, his threat notebook became filled with information on her. If she was going to be watching his every move (he assumed for leverage later on), he had to be prepared to fight back with intel of his own. In the end, the one with more information was king.<p>But rather than as blackmail, he used this information to tease her more often than not. After America, she confronted him less about his Spartan methods of training, so it was the only way to rile her up. He found arguing with her was good stress relief. And the tension was only building with every strong opponent they faced.</p><p>The Shinryuuji game took a lot out of him, but there was still work to be done. So he gave the impression of giving the team the day off, just he could finish his preparation. Right on time, she arrived to let him know his message had been passed on. He didn't expect her to play one of her cards against him in that moment, though.</p><p>"You don't have to try so hard all by yourself. Even if Hiruma-kun doesn't always try to look so strong, everything will be okay. They won't let their guard down."</p><p>"Tch. Stop your mumbling, fucking manager. In that case, shall we make a bet?"</p><p>The bet was pointless. Of course he knew she would win. Though he couldn't respond directly to her words, he wanted an excuse to reward her. An acknowledgment, perhaps, of how keen her observational skills were. After all, it was that very skill that helped them during the game against Poseidon.</p><p>But that fucking manager was becoming more and more dangerous, whether she realized it or not. Aside from Musashi and perhaps Shien (on the gridiron), she was the only one able to read him so well.</p><p>Before the game against Hakushu, he decided to take a look at the threat notebook once again. He might need to play one of his own cards against her, if it came down to it.</p><p>"You mean in the case that Hiruma-kun is unconscious because of a serious injury, right?</p><p>I already tore it up without reading it.</p><p>That's why you definitely can't get hurt."</p><p>It was the first time he'd seen her do something so rash.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <i><s>Nosey. Troublesome.</s><br/>
Smart, stubborn. A pain in the ass.</i>
  </p>
</div>He flipped through the contents. There were now pictures of her dressed up for sports day, shots of her in a tube top hailing drivers in America, a few of her godawful drawings that had been discarded during art lessons, photos of her in a Devil Bats cheerleading uniform, pictures of her stuffing her face with cream puffs during an all-you-can-eat competition.<p>He smirked at the smudged scribble beside her name.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <i>Third question.</i>
  </p>
</div>After this, he would remove her name from the threat notebook. But maybe he'd keep the photos.
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Some of the dialogue intended to be from the manga might sound weird because I think the scanlation to English was a bit off... I ended up translating from Korean scans, since Korean is a bit closer to Japanese. ^^;</p></blockquote></div></div>
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